Contentions

The United States decision to keep funding the Palestinian Authority even after its leader Mahmoud Abbas welcomed Hamas into the PA’s governing coalition helped legitimize the terrorist group. But in the wake of Hamas’ kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, it appears that even some of the Palestinians’ most ardent cheerleaders realize that pouring more money into the coffers of the PA right now may be more trouble than its worth. Thus, rather than plow ahead even in the midst of the furor over the Hamas kidnapping, Norway, which chairs the group coordinating international support for the Palestinians, has decided to postpone the next meeting where donors will discuss how to continue funding the PA.

That’s a smart decision but there’s more involved with the question of aid to the PA than bad optics. The willingness of the international community to go on subsidizing the Fatah-run kleptocracy that governs the West Bank despite its alliance with Hamas is clear. The Palestinians remain popular in Europe, though less so in the United States. But the funds that EU nations and the U.S. funnel into the coffers of the PA are supposed to promote peace and economic development. While the world is supposed to believe that the technocratic front men that Abbas appointed to his new coalition cabinet were going to do just that, the kidnapping is a reminder that getting into bed with Hamas involves subsidizing terrorism. The question is when will the Obama administration draw the appropriate conclusion from these events?

The standard excuse for propping up the PA no matter what it does is that it serves a purpose in giving the Palestinians some sort of government even if it is corrupt and helps foment the hate the fuels the conflict. Moreover, Israel is very wary about the possibility of a collapse of the PA since it needs a Palestinian interlocutor and, at least, in theory, benefits from cooperation with some of the various security forces that work for Abbas and the PA. The PA runs on graft in the form of no-work and no-show jobs to a vast population of Palestinians whose support for Abbas is bought in this manner. Without such corrupt practices, the PA as it is currently constituted probably cannot survive. That has led to a strange dynamic by which both the Israeli government and AIPAC, the principal pro-Israel lobby in Washington, have often sought to head off efforts by Americans to stop the flow of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the PA.

But the plain fact is that so long as Hamas is in business with Fatah and Abbas, continued U.S. funding of the PA violates U.S. law in the form of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. Moreover, even pragmatists who rightly point out that Israel needs the PA in order to avoid having to directly administer the West Bank (Hamas-run Gaza operates as an independent Palestinian state in all but name). But what the kidnapping made clear to both Israelis and the rest of the world is that keeping the tottering PA afloat in this manner may be a case of diminishing returns.

In its current incarnation, the PA does more to prevent peace than to promote it. Its media incites hatred of Israelis and Jews and its focus seems more on glorifying and freeing terrorist murderers than working to build support for the two-state solution that Israel seems to want more than the Palestinians. Moreover, rather than building a Palestinian state, the PA’s efforts are a hindrance to economic development than anything else. The efforts of former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to create responsible governance and an economy that serves the needs of its people failed due to lack of support from Abbas and Fatah. Giving more money to Abbas under these circumstances is an international vote for a regime that does more harm than good.

Even if we believe the claims that Abbas actually wants peace, recent events prove that he is unable to deliver it. The U.S. and the international community may be waiting for the anger about the kidnapped teens to die down before resuming business as usual with the Palestinians. But simply keeping the money flowing to Abbas and his Hamas partners won’t help the causes of peace and a better life for the Palestinian people. So long as Hamas is part of the PA and continues to commit terrorism and work for Israel’s destruction, the aid must be stopped.